Vittoria Bellissimo, CanREA

In recognition of Women’s History Month, PUF sat down with thirteen women leaders across the energy sector to capture their perspectives at a pivotal moment for our industry.

Demand is rising. Infrastructure investment is accelerating. Utilities, regulators, and innovators are navigating increasing expectations around affordability, reliability, and resilience. In this environment, leadership is not theoretical. It is operational. Decisions made today will shape markets, systems, and communities for decades.

The women featured here represent the breadth of the modern grid. Their roles span utilities, regulatory commissions, federal public power, trade associations, research institutions, consumer advocacy offices, and technology companies. The perspectives are varied, but several themes recur: translating complexity into clarity, balancing competing priorities, preparing the workforce of the future, and keeping customers at the center of the conversation.

These conversations are not a single narrative. They are a collection of viewpoints reflecting the realities of leadership in motion. Together, they offer insight into how this essential industry is being guided forward at a time of significant change.

PUF’s Rachel Bryant: Many careers in energy are shaped by unexpected turns. How did you find your way into the electricity sector?

Vittoria Bellissimo: I could give you a long, non-comprehensive list of the important and not-so-important jobs I had along the way. I was a standardized patient in healthcare training, taught algebra, planted trees, made GPS maps, clerked, worked in a bookstore, and did various jobs to pay for school.

That said, this is by far the most interesting job I have ever had, and it is the most interesting time to be working in electricity. Once I reached higher education, my path became much more direct. I completed an undergraduate degree in engineering and a graduate degree in environmental sustainability and moved straight into energy work.

My graduate thesis focused on mechanisms to support renewable energy development, and I completed that work at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. It was an incredibly interesting time to be studying the field.

I had a lot of support early on, including the opportunity to work with the Scottish Parliament when the new buildings first opened. From the beginning, I was focused on a simple question: What can we do to get more renewable energy projects built?

PUF: What did you take away from those early roles that still shapes how you think about the electricity system today?

Vittoria Bellissimo: After graduate school, I worked with the organization then known as the Ontario Power Authority, now the Independent Electricity System Operator. I also spent fourteen years working with large industrial power consumers in Alberta.

That work focused on helping customers secure better rates, ensuring the regulatory system functioned as intended, and helping customers use electricity more effectively. Those experiences gave me a view of the system from the customer side of the bill, which has stayed with me.

As an adult, I always knew I wanted to work in energy, and those roles helped me understand how deeply electricity policy affects real people and businesses. They reinforced the importance of designing systems that work for customers, not just on paper, but in practice.

PUF: From a Canadian perspective, how do you think about priorities like affordability, reliability, and clean energy?

Vittoria Bellissimo: I would not say the concerns are entirely unique, especially since Canada and the United States have integrated electricity markets. We often talk about the three-legged stool of electricity policy.

For us, affordability almost always comes first. When you talk to customers, it is their top concern, followed closely by reliability. Clean energy tends to be the third leg.

One advantage Canada has, and this is true for parts of the United States as well, is our legacy hydroelectric system. That gives many jurisdictions a strong foundation and makes it easier to integrate additional renewable energy.

As a result, some conversations focus on how provinces can better integrate their electricity systems so customers in different regions can benefit. Canada’s system is structured differently, with provinces largely responsible for electricity through Crown corporations, vertically integrated utilities, or open markets.

Across those models, the core challenge is the same: delivering affordable, reliable electricity while building the resilience needed for a growing system.

PUF: When you are leading a team during periods of uncertainty, how do you keep people motivated and moving forward?

Vittoria Bellissimo: We live in what feels like an endlessly unprecedented time. You have to meet people where they are. You do not always know what someone has experienced or what they have read that day, and that uncertainty can weigh heavily on teams.

For us, honesty and trust are critical. We try to set team members up for success and create space for people to express frustration when they need to.

At the same time, we make a point of celebrating successes. When someone joins the organization or there is a win in a particular province, we share it widely. Those moments matter.

Some jurisdictions are building rapidly and running repeated procurement processes because they cannot build fast enough. Others have made decisions that are not serving customers as well. Our role is to focus on setting ourselves up for the next success and recognizing progress as it happens.

PUF: When you look at Canada’s progress in renewable energy, what stands out most to you?

Vittoria Bellissimo: A few years ago, most wind, solar, and storage development in Canada was concentrated in a single jurisdiction. That is no longer the case. Today, we are seeing projects and procurements across the country.

The pace has become so significant that we created a national procurement calendar to track activity and avoid overlap. That transparency matters. When governments clearly signal when they plan to procure power, it helps developers line up supply chains, financing, and workforce, making the market more accessible and competitive.

We are currently tracking about 24 gigawatts of procurements and announcements, representing roughly $44 billion in investment. Through our Canadian Renewable Energy Market Outlook, we project the next decade of wind, solar, and storage growth could drive $143-$205 billion in investment, create hundreds of thousands of job-years, and reduce grid emissions intensity by as much as eighty percent.

Beyond the numbers, what excites me most is predictability. Stable policy and clear market signals matter, and Canada’s electricity sector is providing that stability at a time when demand for electricity has never been higher.

PUF: Looking back, is there any advice you would want future leaders to take to heart?

Vittoria Bellissimo: One belief I hold strongly is that we make electricity more complicated than it needs to be. Leaders in this space have a responsibility to make electricity understandable.

A friend of mine works in medicine and hosts a radio show where he answers questions from kids. He responds seriously, in plain language, without dismissing the question.

That approach stuck with me. A few years ago, at our national conference, Electricity Transformation Canada, I challenged attendees to explain their work as if they were talking to a child. If you can do that clearly, it benefits everyone.

Electricity is complex. Cost allocation, revenue requirements, regulatory processes, and capital planning are all complicated. But that does not mean our explanations have to be. Making electricity understandable builds trust and engagement, whether talking to policymakers, customers, or the public.

PUF: Is there a belief you hold about the energy industry that others might disagree with?

Vittoria Bellissimo: I actually think we focus too much on polarization. Electricity is often framed as a culture war issue, but at its core, people agree on a lot. We will need more electricity. We want it to be as clean as possible. We need diverse generation and resilience.

If you dig deep enough, the framework is the same. Customers want affordable, reliable, clean electricity. Our job is to deliver it. We can work with people who appear to disagree with us and still find common ground. That is how progress happens.

PUF: Looking ahead, what are you hoping to achieve in the coming years?

Vittoria Bellissimo: We have a lot of strategic objectives, but one area we are leaning into more is public engagement. We want to spend more time talking with people about the electricity they use and why wind, solar, and energy storage are essential to the systems we are building in Canada and beyond.

That conversation matters. When people understand the system, they are more likely to support the decisions needed to make it work.

Women’s History Month articles at fortnightly.com

• Doseke Akporiaye, WRISE Executive Director
• Hannah Bascom, Uplight Chief Growth and Commercial Officer
• Michele Beck, Utah Office of Consumer Services Director
• Vittoria Bellissimo, CanREA President and CEO
• Judy Chang, FERC Commissioner
• Neva Espinoza, EPRI Senior Vice President, Energy Supply, and Chief Generation Officer
• Sonia Kastner, Pano AI Co-Founder and CEO
• Maria Korsnick, Nuclear Energy Institute CEO
• Tracey LeBeau, WAPA Administrator and CEO
• Michele O'Connell, Orange and Rockland Utilities CEO
• Ann Rendahl, NARUC President
• Melissa Washington, ComEd Senior Vice President
• Alice Yake, Breakthrough Energy Vice President, GRIDS